…..(讓)(我)(忙得)(糊裡糊塗)❼

……(to make)(me)(busy to the point of)(confused, mixed up, muddle-headed)

My schedule is too full; I am so busy I don’t know whether I am coming or going!

我的工作太多了，讓我忙得頭昏腦脹！

(我的)(工作)(太)(多)(了)，

(ㄨㄛˇ ㄉㄜ˙) (ㄍㄨㄥ ㄗㄨㄛˋ) (ㄊㄞˋ) (ㄉㄨㄛ) (ㄌㄜ˙),

(wǒ de.)(gōng zuò)(tài)(duō)(le.),

(my)(work)(too)(much)(intensifies preceding clause),

…..(讓)(我)(忙得)(頭昏腦脹)❽

……(ㄖㄤˋ) (ㄨㄛˇ) (ㄇㄤˊ ㄉㄜ˙) (ㄊㄡˊ ㄏㄨㄣ ㄋㄠˇ ㄓㄤˋ)

……(ràng)(wǒ)(máng de.)(tóu hūn nǎo zhàng)

……(to make)(me)(so busy that)(my head is spinning)

I have too much work! It is making my head spin!

我的工作太多了，讓我忙得不可開交！

(我的)(工作)(太)(多)(了)，

(ㄨㄛˇ ㄉㄜ˙) (ㄍㄨㄥ ㄗㄨㄛˋ) (ㄊㄞˋ) (ㄉㄨㄛ) (ㄌㄜ˙),

(wǒ de.)(gōng zuò)(tài)(duō)(le.),

(my)(work)(too)(much)(intensifies preceding clause),

…..(讓)(我)(忙得)(不可開交)

……(ㄖㄤˋ) (ㄨㄛˇ) (ㄇㄤˊ ㄉㄜ˙) (ㄅㄨˋ ㄎㄜˇ ㄎㄞ ㄐㄧㄠ)

……(ràng)(wǒ)(máng de.)(bù kě kāi jiāo)

……(to make)(me)(busy to the following degree)(to be awfully)

I have so much work that I am awfully busy!

Notes:

❶ This is one of those words that seems unnecessary to the English ear, but my tutor says that without it the sentence sounds like it is missing something. English has “filler” words like that, too.

❷ Have I mentioned that I love this Chinese word? It literally means “get on the horse,” indicating that you will ride right off and get something done!

❸ It is an interesting grammatical construction of the Chinese language that what is being looked for needs to be indicated before you ask “where it is.”

❹ The doubling of the verb makes the sentence a little more light hearted.

❺ The word kennel can be said as

狗屋 ㄍㄡˇ ㄨ (gǒu wū) “dog house”

or

狗籠ㄍㄡˇ ㄌㄨㄥˊ (gǒu lóng) “dog cage”

in Chinese. I chose to use 狗籠 because in America we associate a dog house with something out in the yard and the dog is not usually shut up in it. Also, I thought the second character, 籠, was more interesting. The main part of the character is the same as the character for “dragon, ” 龍 🐲，AND is pronounced the same. The part on the top of the “cage” character is the radical for bamboo, since that is the ancient material for constructing cages.

❻ The formal way to say “when” in Chinese is

的時候

ㄉㄜ˙ ㄕˊ ㄏㄡˋ

de. shí hòu

but in casual speaking it is often shortened to just 時 ㄕˊ (shí)

❼ This 4 words idiom is made up of

糊 meaning “confused” or “not clear”

裡 which is literally “in”

糊塗 the combination which means “mixed up, confused”

❽ The literal meaning of the characters in this 4 words idiom are

頭 “head, top”

昏 “dusk, dark”

腦 “brain”

脹 “swell, inflate, expand”

❾ And the last 4 words idiom is

不 “not”

可 “can, may”

開 “open, begin”

交 “mix, communicate, deliver”

➓ There can be subtle differences in structure that mean basically the same thing in Chinese, just like in English. For example, if the adjective marker (de.) is added right after (zuò) in this phrase, making it

牠要看看我在做的晚餐

then the translation is: it wants to watch what I’m making for dinner.